Vindicated (A Jenny Watkins Mystery Book 6)

by Becky Durfee

  “So, I assume you remember Stella Jorgenson?” Kyle began.

  “Yeah, I remember her.”

  “I imagine you can recall how she met her demise.”

  “I can,” he said with a nod. “She was stabbed by her neighbor.”

  “Well, we’re not convinced it was her neighbor anymore.”

  Jenny watched as Shane’s expression changed into a look she couldn’t immediately recognize. Was she observing fear? Concern? Shock? She felt helpless that she didn’t have the aid of spirits guiding her in the right direction this time. Like all of the detectives she’d ever worked with in the past, this time she was forced to rely solely on testimony, body language, evidence and intuition.

  She liked it better when the spirits showed her the face of the killer.

  “I understand that you and Stella were involved in a romantic relationship at the time the murder took place,” Kyle said calmly.

  “Just prior to it, yes.”

  Just prior to it?

  “The relationship ended before she was killed?” Kyle posed. “Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

  This was all news to Jenny. She was hoping the look on her face didn’t give away her surprise.

  “Doctor Burke, we have eyewitness testimony saying you spent the weekend prior to the murder at a cookout at Stella’s house.”

  He nodded. “That is true.”

  “So, your relationship ended during the last week of her life?” Kyle asked.

  “It did. In fact, it ended because there was some crazy kid in her neighborhood who was obsessed with her. If you want to find your murderer, you should look for that guy. I bet he had something to do with it.”

  Jenny interjected, “Colin Barrymore.”

  “I guess that was his name,” Shane said with a dismissive gesture of his hand. “I don’t even know.”

  Kyle continued the line of questioning. “How did he cause the break-up of your relationship?”

  “Well, he had shown up the weekend before at Stella’s house when I was there. He was bringing her flowers. He saw us together, and we were clearly together. I guess it was too much for him; he made a terrible scene.”

  “Doctor Burke,” Jenny said professionally, “I’ve spoken to another person who was there that day; from what I understand, Colin left peacefully after he saw you with Stella. The witness specifically said there was no scene.”

  “There wasn’t a scene at the cookout,” the doctor clarified. “When he showed up at the hospital a few days later, that was a different story.”

  Jenny’s eyes widened, but Kyle was the one to respond. “What happened when he came to the hospital?”

  “He was like a lunatic,” Shane said. “I worked in the ER at the time, and he came wandering in one day looking for me.”

  Jenny was surprised by what she was hearing. “He was allowed to just wander in?”

  “This was the eighties,” Doctor Burke explained. “Things were a lot different then. Security was practically non-existent. Anyway, he walked around until he found me…I was setting a kid’s broken arm when he started accusing me of forcing Stella to sleep with me so she could keep her job…he said that right in front of this kid and his mother. I told him to get the hell out of my ER, but he persisted. He told me that if I didn’t leave Stella alone he’d go to my supervisors and have me fired.” He shook his head. “That’s when things got to be too much for me. I mean, I liked Stella and all, and I enjoyed spending time with her, but that was crazy. After that incident, I told Stella it might be best if we took a break.”

  Kyle wrote down notes as he spoke. “And how did she take that news?”

  With a shrug, Shane said, “I’m sure she was devastated.”

  Jenny knew that when she’d look back at this conversation with Doctor Burke later, she was going to find a lot wrong with it. She was going to find a lot wrong with him. At the moment, however, she could only sit and listen, trying to make sense of the latest developments.

  “Okay, so you two broke up a few days before the murder,” Kyle said calmly. “Where were you the afternoon the murder took place?”

  “At the hospital,” Shane said confidently. “Working.”

  “Can anyone substantiate that claim?”

  “I’m sure somebody can, although I don’t know how long the hospital keeps records of that kind of thing.”

  “This was twenty-six years ago,” Jenny said with awe in her voice. “How can your memory of that afternoon be so clear?”

  “Because it was a day when someone I cared about was murdered. You tend to remember stuff like that,” he said coolly. “It wasn’t like it was just an ordinary Saturday.”

  Kyle remained on task. “Does your wife have an alibi for that day?”

  For the first time, Doctor Burke looked angry. “My wife doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

  “It’s just a simple question,” Kyle said. “Can anyone verify her whereabouts on that June afternoon in 1988?”

  “She was in Philadelphia.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  Shane sighed with defeat. “I’m sure somebody could vouch for her, but there’s no reason for that. She doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

  Kyle leaned back in his chair and said, “I’m assuming that your wife doesn’t know about the affair you were having with Stella Jorgenson.”

  After a long pause, Shane conceded, “No, she doesn’t know.”

  Looking at the doctor over his glasses, Kyle calmly posed, “Are you sure about that?”

  “Very sure,” Shane said without hesitation. “And she doesn’t need to know about it, you got that?”

  “Look, what goes on between you and your wife is certainly none of my business,” Kyle said assuredly, “but solving this murder is my business. If there’s any possible way you or your wife could have been involved in this crime, I need to investigate it…even if it does put a dent in your marital bliss. What I’m looking at is a very public outburst that exposed the affair that you were having with one of the nurses. It’s quite possible that word could have gotten back to your wife, and she may have exacted her revenge on the other woman in your life.”

  “She didn’t,” Doctor Burke said adamantly. “So, I would appreciate it if you left my wife out of this.”

  Kyle remained calm, simply saying, “I will…for now.” He reached into his wallet and pulled out a business card. “Listen, I’ll leave you with this. I want you to think hard about that weekend… see if you can give me the name of someone who can verify you and your wife’s whereabouts during the attack. Any information you can give us will be greatly appreciated.”

  Despite the tension during the conversation, the two men said amicable goodbyes; soon Jenny was back in the car with Kyle on their way to his office. “So, what do you think?” she posed. “Do you think he had anything to do with it?”

  “It’s too soon to tell,” Kyle replied. He paused to listen to the directions his GPS was giving, turning the car in the direction he was supposed to go. “I will say the man appeared to be a bit of an asshole, pardon my French, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer.”

  Jenny slowly nodded as she looked out the window, silently wondering what Stella could have seen in Shane Burke—although, she quickly answered that question for herself. Doctor Burke was someone, which was all the young widow wanted at that point in her life.

  “Oh,” Jenny said as her train of thought reminded her of something she had wanted to tell Kyle. “I think I know why I’ve been getting all of my information from Nate instead of Stella herself.”

  “Oh yeah? Why is that?”

  She leaned back against the headrest and glanced toward Kyle. “She wanted to be with her husband. He had been killed in a car accident a couple of years earlier; when she passed away, she got to be with him again.” Jenny repositioned herself so she was looking out the front window. “Even though s
he had been taken violently, I think she was more concerned with seeing her husband again than she was with seeking revenge against her killer.”

  “She couldn’t do both?” Kyle posed.

  Jenny shook her head. “If her husband had crossed over, then she’d need to do the same in order to be reunited with him. Once a spirit crosses, they can’t come back…and they can’t communicate with me anymore, so I imagine that’s why she’s quiet.”

  Kyle nodded but didn’t say anything.

  In a strange way, Jenny felt happy for Stella. It was clear that she had missed her husband, and now she was able to spend an eternity with him. Although, Jenny concluded, nobody deserved the violent death that Stella had endured. The person responsible for that attack needed to be caught and punished, even if Stella herself wasn’t suffering from unrest because of it.

  “Do you know if there were any other deaths like Stella’s around that same time frame?” Jenny asked. “Is it possible we’re barking up the wrong tree by assuming she was an intended target?”

  “I wasn’t able to find any,” Kyle assured her. “It was one of the first things I looked for. If there had been several cases like hers, that would have dramatically changed the nature of the investigation.”

  “That’s what I was thinking,” Jenny said. “I guess the fact that she was the only one means she was sought out deliberately.”

  “The overkill factor implies that, too. When a victim has as many stab wounds as Stella did, that usually means the attack was personal. The perpetrator didn’t just want her dead—he wanted her to suffer.”

  Jenny thought about that notion for a moment. “Do you think either of the Burkes wanted her to suffer?”

  “Honestly, if I had to guess, I’d say the Burke who was most likely want her to suffer would be Shane’s wife Katherine,” Kyle concluded. “I do want to avoid dragging her into this if I can. I’d hate to ruin a marriage unnecessarily.” He let out a laugh. “I stick a fork in enough marriages in my line of work; I don’t need to do it to another one. I do, however, want to interview that Colin kid—it sounds like he felt quite passionately about Stella, which means he may have been inclined to stab her eight times. Before we find him, though, I’d like to speak to some other people who were at that cookout…see if they have any feelings about what Colin’s mindset may have been prior to the murder…or Doctor Burke’s for that matter. Do you know who else was there that day?”

  “No,” Jenny confessed, turning to Kyle with a smile, “but I know where I can find that out.”

  Chapter 8

  The dining room table was littered with papers and photographs. “It was cool of the cop to give you these,” Zack noted as they tried to make sense of all the documents.

  “I agree,” Jenny replied. “I think he felt bad for the Minnicks.”

  “It’s hard not to.” After looking through a few pictures, Zack added, “You know, aside from the upside-down coffee table, it doesn’t look like a murder took place in here.”

  “I know,” Jenny said. “The carpet was brown, which hid the blood stains nicely. Trust me, though…when Nate knelt down beside her, his knees got soaked.”

  “I wonder if she died there or if she lived long enough to be taken to the hospital.”

  “I imagine she was alive when the paramedics arrived,” Jenny commented. “If she had died at the house, they probably would have left her body there. Based on these pictures, she had been removed from the scene.”

  Zack shook his head. “That’s horrible. I would like to think she’d have died more quickly than that.”

  “Don’t think about it,” Jenny said. “It’s too upsetting.” She scanned a document as a notion struck her. “Zack, what do you make of this? They said the murder weapon was a switch blade knife. But look…” She sorted through some pictures, pulling out one that had been taken of Nate at the police station. “Look what he was wearing.”

  Zack studied the photograph featuring Nate in a bloody t-shirt and a pair of brightly-colored nylon shorts.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Jenny said, “but those shorts don’t look like they’d have any pockets.”

  Squinting to get a better look, Zack noted, “It appears they don’t.”

  “So, Nate would have had to either get the switch blade from Stella’s house or carry it over with him in his hand. Nate’s mother said he had been weeding the flower beds when he heard Stella scream…I doubt a switch blade would have been his tool of choice for that task.”

  “You wouldn’t think,” Zack said, “but you also said he wasn’t very smart, right? Maybe he was using a switch blade to cut weeds.”

  Jenny exhaled. “Okay, so maybe that’s not the silver bullet I thought it might be.”

  Ellen poked her head through the doorframe. “How’s it going in here?”

  “It’s going,” Jenny said. “There’s so much information…it’s a little overwhelming.”

  “Do you two want anything to drink?”

  “I’m good,” Zack said without looking up. “Jenny, you want something?”

  Jenny smiled at Ellen. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

  Ellen disappeared around the corner.

  After silently looking through stacks of paperwork, Zack eventually said, “Huh. This is new.”

  “What is it?” Jenny asked.

  “Look at this picture.” He handed a photograph over to Jenny, who immediately noted a bloody handprint on a door frame.

  “Oh my God,” Jenny said. “Where is this from?”

  “It looks like the sliding glass door, which is in the back of the house off the dining room.”

  “Holy shit,” Jenny whispered, mostly to herself. “I guess it would make sense that the killer went out the back door if Nate didn’t see him on his way in the front.” She looked at Zack with awe. “Wouldn’t this have been a big red flag to the detectives investigating the case? Willy Sanders said he saw Nate running out the front door with the knife…how could a bloody handprint have gotten on the door frame in the back of the house if Nate had been the killer?”

  Zack shrugged. “That’s why I showed you the picture.”

  Jenny was still stunned. “How could the detectives have overlooked this?” A flash suddenly appeared before Jenny’s eyes. She could envision herself as Nate, running out the front door of Stella’s house, heading toward the Minnick’s. For the first time she noticed something was missing. “Zack,” she said quickly, “are there any pictures of the outside of Stella’s house?”

  He looked around at the masses of papers around them. “Um…maybe? Why?”

  “If I’m seeing it correctly, there was no car on the street. I would think if the killer had driven to the house, there would have been a car parked along the road…or at the very least a second car in Stella’s driveway. I only saw one car in Stella’s driveway, and I didn’t see any cars at Nate’s house.”

  The two scoured through pictures until they found some shots from the outside of the house. Just as Jenny had suspected, the only car to be seen was in Stella’s driveway.

  Jenny tapped her chin. “I wonder if Kyle will be able to tell us if that car was registered to Stella.”

  “I’m sure he can,” Zack said.

  “Okay, so is this evidence that Colin was most likely her killer? The Burkes didn’t live close enough…if one of them had done it, they would have had to drive over, but it appears they didn’t.”

  “I think it’s either evidence that it was Colin or else one of the Burkes went over with the intent to kill Stella. If this was just a visit-gone-wrong from the Burkes, they probably would have parked in front of her house, not behind it. But, if murder had been the plan all along, it’s reasonable to assume they would have gone through efforts to make sure their car wasn’t visible to the neighbors.”

  “Let me see something,” Jenny said as she pulled her laptop closer to her. She searched for an aerial view of Stella’s old house, zooming out to see exactly where Colin’s apartmen
t complex fell with respect to her property. She turned the screen toward Zack, pointing to the parking lot that surrounded the apartments. “If the killer parked here, it looks like it would have been a short walk through the trees to get to Stella’s house.” She glanced up at Zack. “I wonder which of these buildings Colin lived in.”

  After studying the image, Zack replied, “I don’t think it matters. Any one of those buildings would have been within walking distance.”

  She looked at the computer screen for another moment before holding up the picture of the bloody handprint. “It looks like the killer may have used this hand to brace himself as he pulled open the slider with the other. He could have run down the back deck and through the trees to the parking lot.” She squinted at the photograph of the door sill before adding, “I wonder if they were able to lift any prints from this.”

  “If they did,” Zack concluded, “I imagine it would have been difficult to explain why someone else’s bloody fingerprints were at the scene of a crime Nate committed.”

  Jenny strummed her fingers on the table as she considered this piece of evidence. At that moment her phone rang; glancing at the caller, she noticed it was Megan.

  “Hi Megan; thanks for returning my call.”

  “No problem,” she said pleasantly. “What can I do for you?”

  “Well,” Jenny began, “I spoke to Doctor Burke today.”

  “Oh.” Megan’s tone was flat. “How did that go?”

  “Interesting. He said that he had actually ended things with Stella a few days before she was killed.”

  “Really? I didn’t know that.”

  “Stella hadn’t mentioned that to you?”

  “No,” Megan confessed. “Honestly, we didn’t talk about her love life that much. She knew I didn’t really approve of what she was doing, and I think deep down inside she was embarrassed of it, so we never discussed it. She just did what she did, and I never said anything about it. That was kind of our unspoken agreement.”